Utah Valley Half, 1:10:27, 5th overall, broke Conner Mantz's course record for the 15-18 age divison by 58 seconds. To be fair, Conner was 15 years and 6 months old, I am 16 years and 4 months old, so I had almost a year advantage on him. He also did it into a headwind, today we had mild tailwind. But it feels good to take Conner's record under any circumstances. I also finished ahead of Ryan Hall, who was not officially in the race, but was doing a fartlek on the course alterating 5:00 miles with what was supposed to be 7:00 but ended up being closer to 6:30 - he ended up covering the distance in around 1:14-1:15.
I earned $75 for finishing 5th overall. I do not care about high school or collegiate running, so I took it. This is the first time I earned actual cash prize in a race. I have gotten a gift certificate at the SLC Track Club series before, but never cash - the big lions have been taking it from me when I was just a baby lion. Now I am a teenage lion, and I proved that I can snatch the prey from the adults. My dad also got money today ($150) winning the masters in 1:15:54.
The only regret is that I was not able to break 1:10 which my dad set for me as a requirement to get my driver's license. But I am much closer now than I used to be. Prior to this my PR was 1:12:55 at the Top of Utah Half.
My dad told me to follow Braden Perry, a Weber State runner, who I raced at the BYU Clarence Robison Invitational in the 5000. He beat me by 12 seconds in that race, and was shooting for sub-1:10 in this one. So my dad thought this was a perfect match. We started out a bit slower - 5:22, 5:21, 5:28, then we started cracking 5:20s, and there was a mile there in 5:07. Around 9 miles Braden dropped me. At 11 miles my split was just a little under 58:51 - just 11 seconds behind the 5:20 guy and about 5 seconds behind the DL qualifier. I gave it all I had over the last 2 miles, but it was somewhere in the 5:30 range - though my best finish of the half still not quite good enough to get the standard.
In the last two miles I passed Mike Nielsen moving into the money. One of the three Nephites who my dad thinks was Scott Keate based on the description and the ability to run the pace ran with me and cheered me on on that difficult stretch. Another runner passed me in the last mile, and I thought I had finished 6th, but it turned out that that runner was not officially in the race.
Ahead of me - Brett Hales 1:05:45, Riley Cook 1:06:49, Taylor Farnsworth 1:09:14, Braden Perry 1:09:49.
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